November 11, 2010

 

EU GM-approval plans could be unworkable

 

 

Intentions to allow EU members to decide for themselves whether to grow genetically modified crops or ban them could be unworkable, according to the EU Council of Ministers.

 

The EU Council of Ministers' legal service believes the proposals given by the EU Commission four months ago to overcome a longstanding EU impasse on new GM approvals, could go against global trade rules.

 

The proposal states that the EU executive commission would have the authority to permit GM varieties and individual member states would then decide to allow or disallow cultivation.

 

One main concern brought up by legal experts was how individual governments would justify banning the cultivation of a crop if the commission had already decided there were no environmental or health reasons for doing so.

 

The most obvious justification would be an ethical argument but the likelihood of it being acknowledged by the WTO or EU courts as a valid reason for a ban was unlikely because livestock farms in most EU countries are already using imported GM feed.

 

Helen Ferrier, NFU chief science adviser, said the new legal opinion showed several of the union's concerns. Although the NFU had supported the plans for GM approval initially at member state level, it decided not to now.

 

"We are not happy with the logjam of proposals and recognise the need to move things on. But we are not convinced that the plans as they stand would satisfy those countries causing the logjam and let things proceed."

 

The recent legal opinion supported earlier concerns about WTO trade infringements, Ferrier said. "And the idea of having ethical considerations being used to oppose approvals raises real concerns.

 

"We are having enough difficulty with the science, without bringing ethics into it," she said.

 

The legal experts had also reinforced concerns that internal trade could be affected. "There is a reason for having harmonised regulation within a trading block - once you remove it, it raises all sorts of unknowns," Ferrier added.

 

The legal opinion was due to be given to EU government experts in Brussels on Thursday (November 11).

 

France, Italy and Spain have all expressed doubts over the draft law and want decisions on GM approvals to stay at EU level.